are enticing justin to use comey mass eve and christmas day ahead as well. >> all right. then we have a lot of gust including amy who is from the maryland zoo and she brace in -- brings something in that is covered and secret. and we will open up the case and see what she has. but there are a lot of fun things at the zoo. people doesn't know that. amy will let us know what's happening and i will tell you it's a rain. it's be -- raven it's spectacular. >> what did i ask? >> it's just a crow. >> no. i said is it not a crow? she said no and i said nevermore. christmas traditions why does santa come down the chimney. was ebenezer scrooge real? we will have answers dr. joel walsh will be in from loyola university to give us answers to the questions. stick around for that i called it crow. >> it's a raven. amy will at tell you. our local shopping continues 2910 on the square a great store in canton. it's so warm and so friendly. they have great gifts so if you have not done your shopping and you don't want to go to the mall and get something that everybody else is going to have, you will want to stick around for this segment. it's a unique story with all sorts of goodies. we are talking about the boardwalk over in ocean city. >> that's right. this is the talker. traditional wooden boardwalk in ocean city may turn into concrete. a public hearing is scheduled in february to get public opinion on replacing the two-mile long boardwalk. >> official reviewed the option including possibly building a concrete tram lane in the center of the boardwalk and gone onto say price tag in the neighborhood of $10 million to replace the wooden structure. so maybe go concrete and have it hang around longer. >> people feel nostalgic connection and we want your two cents. on the wmar facebook fan page we ask do you want ocean city to spend the money to repair and replace the boardwalk with wood and chang it to concrete to save money this is what we are hearing. travis says why doesn't they spend more and put something down like that will make it so they don't have to did do anything and it will look better than concrete. >> sue writes in saying they should replace it with the boards. that's why it's called a boardwalk. that was at the end of the -- that was at the end of the nos. >> if you want to share your two cents, go to the wmar facebook fan page and leave a comment and we will share the comments throughout the show. all right. now on to the weather which is wild across the u.s. from flooding and mudslide in california, to up to 8 feet of snow in the colorado mountains. more is being expected across the east. old man wint are arrived and it's-- wint are arrived and it's in a fewer -- winter arrived, and it's in a fury. this could just be the beginning. >> reporter: it's soaking, blowing and suffocating the nation. >> i never seen it like this in years. >> reporter: what's being called the storm of the decade is pounding parts east to west high winds toppled the wall of this sack rateo shopping -- sacramento shopping mall beverly hills is soaked. 6 inches of rain has fallen sis friday. >> when the windshield wipers are full blast i don't like to drive. >> reporter: across southern california, hundreds of homes are evacuated. residents worried about mud slides. the massive storm is marching east. forecasters are calling for up to 8 feet of snow in the colorado mountains. >> i rather it snow. cint stand the rain. >> reporter: in minimum -- i can't stand the rain. >> reporter: in minnesota, they braved bone chilling conditions to watch the game. blustery conditions made for a interestingy trip on the road. >> driving down main treat and a couple people tried to turn in front of them bad road conditions and couldn't stop. >> reporter: welcome white christmas for parts of the country. but if you just hate this stuff, well, you have a long way to go. today is only the first day of winter. abc news. >> i said summer and it's winter. my apologies. everyone. >> it's wishful thinking you keep talking about the snow. maybe you don't want it. >> you trying to do reverse psychology. >> maybe. >> this is what women do. >> that's it. all right. justin. help me out here. >> well, south of the equator summer began. >> there you go. >> he is on brazil time. >> this is it. got some video. if you had a chance to wake up early and see the eclipse, aspect tack already as it was to see the dimness of the moon it was more impressive to see it come back and what you are watching there literally is just earth shadow on the moon surface as it peaks out from the shadow and gets full sunlight once again. the contrast of brightness to darkness was phenomenal. even though the pictures don't show, it's tough for the camera to capture that. let's bring it back over. a picture from local photographer jim skiler, and it was a deep orange glow and this might not do justice to what it looked like as the brightness of the moon was 1,000 fold dimmer than it was during the full moon phase. a thousand times brighter in full moon than that. hope that made sense. here's the issue. passing in the shadow of earth and that was at totality this morning. between 2:41 and 3:53, i found it amazing when i woke up. my normal time to step out and see this. but how many other people were out and writing online and it's to pass this along and thank my wife for the phrase, merry eclipsemas. yes, we had that this morning. and we have the winter soul cities at 6:38 and we set our sites on the high probability of a snowstorm off the east coast. a 75% chance of that happening. before we do that let's talk about what's happening in new england. the storm that missed us on sunday, cranked off the atlantic and it's rollbackwards. and we are 31 and they are 30 in boston. 25 in albany and both shots getting snow moderate snowfall in eastern section of new england. and as that storm tries to work backwards it's not going to make it here to maryland but increasing the wind field and you may have noticed the wind picking up this morning. that plus a disturbance back to the west. clouds pretty much in all directions. so we were lucky to get the clearing across the mid at lantic to see it during the early morning hours. the national picture, and you heard about the national weather outlook. we have got our storm in new england working backwards and this crearchtion up in new england and eastern canada and create a roadblock. the next main storm in the pacific is offshooting some energy into the flood zone in southern california and in through las vegas where they could pick up two inch of rainfall in the desert. and yes, the feet of snow in the rockies. that storm ejects itself towards the east. stale few different scenarios with the computer models. but it appears as if it will redevelop off the coast christmas day. that old storm farther to the north cree it's a roadblock. whatever forms will chug off the coast slowly and it could dump quite a bit of snow. how much? we will see that -- save that until tomorrow because there's not enough information to tell you how much moisture it contains. but it could be a very impressive amount for the holiday weaning. 35 today, wind chills in the 20s and after the official start of winter at 6:38, we will drop back to 23 with mostly cloudy skies and we will talk about the snowstorm for christmas in the next half-hour. >> i don't mind the snow but storm and snow in the sim sentence brothers me. a different story when you battle canser. >> why keeping the pound on and maintaining a healthy weight is so important for those fighting cancer. why is it you get grabbed and smooched underneath the mistel toe. there are christmas legends out there. joe walsh will straighten it out for us. we will be right back. ñ you're watching the station that works for you "good morning, maryland" at nine. and well could back to "good morning, maryland" at nine. the holidays arement for time with friend and -- are meant for time with friends and family. if you are cancer patient, you need extra weight as you continue fighting the condition. joining us is marisa is a registered dietitian with ways to help you keep the pounds on and why it's so important. good morning. >> good morning. >> why is this so important for cancer patients? >> well, it's estimated by the national cancer institute that approximately 1 in 5 cancer deaths are related to severe weight loss animal new tigs. so working at a dietitian we understand that weight loss and the inability to eat can affect different aspects of our patient's lives and eating let's face it is one way we are able to enjoy ourselves through treatment so we know that staying well nourished can help in the healing process of cancer fleement as someone might be going some of the recovery treatments, keep mow and most specifically will there be a desire to not eat and maybe kind of withhold eating for a while maybe a loss of appetite. >> that can occur along there journey of healing. so for many patients it's important that we make sure they are getting the nutrient food in so they are able to maintain their overall lifestyle. >> maintaining the lifestyle and a balance because they can also gain too much weight can't they? >> they can. and through studies and research we know it's not necessarily always healthy weight gain. we want to make sure that people are maintaining within what a healthy range would be considered. >> now, as you and i are people who might not be diagnosed with cancer will enjoy holiday meals. there are specific meals cancer patients needs to be aware of somethings to enjoy and things they should avoid right. >> that's correct. >> what are some of the things they should avoid. >> high fat high sugar foods typically those are in the categories of certainly the special treats for the holidays like pies and cookies, definitely creamy beverages, alcoholic beverages in excess. >> and i want to say that's wouldn't thing you said in excess. some of the things we would need to be aware of not to go overboard with but maybe to be especially aware. >> right. and it's important we get the right types of fats in our diets. for instance many fats such as omega three fats are anti-inflammatory properties and we will find those in cold water fatty fish and walnuts and our reenforced and enriched feuds and juices. >> what are a couple warning signs to be aware of and look out for in terms of weight gain -- gain or loss as they go through cancer treatments in. >> too much weight gain can induce more fatigue. so, if they are getting tired or if they are having problems like nausea from eating too much, that can certainly not be a good thing. so you want to speak to your oncologist or even if there's a nutrition professional available that they are getting treated at, and discuss am i within healthy weight range for my height and age. >> website people go to to see guidelines and tips. >> www.cancer center.com. or call 1-800-323-ctca for more information. >> thanks so much for your time this morning. >> thank you. >> we will have the information on abc2news.com. if you missed any part of the interview or website and phone number, "ñthe it will be up in an hour this morning. >> thanks. we want to go back to your two cents on today's hot topic. ocean city thoughts about he replacing the boardwalk with concrete. it's a possibility. on the wmar facebook fan page, do you you want them to remace -- do you want the boardwalk to be replaced with concrete. >> it's beautiful and concrete with a bike path and lighting in virginia for walking at night it. would be great for ocean city also and kim writes in keep the wood. there is nothing like the smell of how a do you say it? she gave me a lesson of what it is, smoldering in the hot summer sun to bring back childhood memories. if you you want to chair your two cent, log on to the fan shall wmar facebook fan page and we will share the comments. and here is amy who knows everything and she told me the guy on her arm is crazy smart. we will hear all about the great things going on at the zoo when we come back. thanks for joining us. one of my favorite people in the world amy from the maryland zoo comes in with something cool and brought in the ultimate ravens fan a raven. >> rye. >> who you will see at games. >> yes we stand on the field for the entire game. so, noise at bad gig. >> you -- so, it's not a bad gig. >> he is checking everything out. >> they are. any other species of birds wouldn't be able to handle that stimulation but because they are smart and they like to learn and like to watch things, they do well on field. we tried to prep them and i played loud music and at the were raised around my boys and you know lots of noise. >> that will do it. >> you can't prep them for the stadium. when we got there they did so well. and it's because they are watching -- we are 20 feet from the ray lewis coming out and they don't care. >> they are not -- they can't be bothered. >> so unphased. third quarter they are falling asleep. pf you see them hunkered down it's because they are asleep. they have been watching the game and they are like the ravens will win we are done. so they stop watching. >> he looks inquisitive. >> that's cat chow. low protein so he doesn't get chunky. and we don't want him to put on pound. we give them the low pro cat chow but they are a animal ambassador up for adoption. we have $25 adoption packages. it has a plush raven the kind you that doesn't stink and you don't have to field and a picture of them. that's one of the many things you can do for animal fans in your family. >> that's a great idea. do you -- do you do that all year-round. >> whoa do. we -- we do. we do two adoption a special on the snowy owl and girl i've. -- giraffe. that's a nice last-minute gift. and talk to hanna in membership about that. but you can give her a call or go to the website and figure out how to get ahold of them. we have vince going on. it will be open all winter. >> that's a lot of people don't know you are open during the winter and probably what's going on. >> yeah. >> there's cool events coming up. >> a new nature series coming up. peter martin in the education department is a nature guy and he really loves being outside regardless of the weather. he has nature hikes going on. and we have tree identification and bird watching plans. so you can go to the maryland zoo.org website and find out about that under education and you can do that. we have polar bear breakfast coming up. breakfast series always sells out. >> what is it? >> we don't feed you to the polar bears. it's a catered breakfast and you get to get up close to the polar bear exhibit and they do special enrichment and it's an in-depth acquaintance with the polar bears. not with them but you know more about them. the keepers will tell you about them. and you get a nice experience with your family in the polar bear exhibit outside of the polar bear exhibit not swimming with them. you get more information than you normally get if you were walking through. >> and one other thing that he might like winter bird watching in we do. what people may not realize is we have a fantastic waterfowl lake. if you come in where the tram is, right-hand side, it's what we call an international fly away. and so many birds stop there during the migration routes because we are -- baltimore is on a great migration route up and down the east coast. we get species that you don't normally see that are heading south and north in the spring that you wouldn't see in your backyard. aid great place to come with your binoculars and we have a bird book and check out species you normally wouldn't have exposure to noon the third is the walk. >> the fitness walk and it's the first time we have done this. we want people to come out with families and there's a meeting place on ground. and you have to presign up for all of these so we don't fill up. and we have enough resource for everybody when you get there. you will do a it -- you will do a fitness walk on ground. it's hilly and anyone who runs there can tell. we want to take advantage of that. we have stroller strideers that walk around and people that come and walk the property because it's hilly, very challenging location. so, what peter has done is come up with this route you can take and you learn about nature and the facilities but you also get out and with your kids and work yourself out while learning. >> we tend to hibernate in the winter. >> bring mittens and hats and come out. >> one more piece of food. come on. thanks so much for coming in. happy holidays. >> you too. >> the boys are cute bring them. >> hi toby and drew. >> are they watching? >> yes. >> hi. >> isn't this cool. >> i like the raven but i have a question about polar bears. >> yes. >> is it true they hiss and don't growl. >> well ours can get grumpy they growl and they don't make a loud noise but i never heard them hiss. >> polar bears will eat you. >> they will. they will eat you quicker than anyone else. >> go to the polar bear breakfast instead. head to the maryland zoo's website for more information. >> thanks. you wonder why santa goes down the chimney or maybe if ebenezer scrooge is real? dr. joel walsh from loyola university plow vied the answers and history. also coming up later, retailers. is it going to be a great christmas or..., the answers are coming up. you are watching "good morning, maryland" at nine. we are back in a bit. now, "good morning, maryland" at nine. america's retailers will probably get the very christmas present they had been hoping for, hefty sales and profits as well. and with three full holiday shopping days left to go, the momentum continues. tj winnick tells butts 2010 season and how it will be a strong one. >> reporter: with just days until christmas, retailers are rolling out the red carpet. from sun up to sundown. j.c. penney's holiday hours are 6 a.m. to midnight. toys r us locations will remain open 88 consecutive hours leading up to saturday. >> this is going to be one of the highest volume retail periods in the history of mankind of everyone day from now until christmas will be massive. >> reporter: according to experts, last ten days before christmas can account for a third of holiday sales. online sales are especially hot. >> so far we have seen to date online sales up 13.5% up from half the year and that's a great number especially considering that retail sales are only growing by about 3 or 4% year to year. >> reporter: hot item jewelry. with many having more cash to spend than last year luxury items are back. >> it's much better than we projected here due to people who are letting go a little bit. >> reporter: retailers are giving deep discounts. 50% off at gap plus another 20% if you bought this past weekend. last-minute customers will be treated especially well. >> you will have the ambassador that is are standing there with special gift cards and discounts and because they want you in the store and they are going reward you for that. >> reporter: the national sales outlook is optimistic. las vegas retailers face an uphill battle with the highest unemployment rate in the country. >> people are not spending what they used to spend. >> reporter: national retail federation predicted a 2.3% increase in holiday sales this season. but now they think it will be a full point higher. tj winnick abc news, new york. >> time is running out to help make the holidays brighter for children in the area. we want to remind you about the 12th annual kindertime toy drive. we are looking for new unrapid and un-- unwrapped and unopened toys. this year we teamed up with the baltimore symphony orchestra to collect instruments for the orchestra kids program. you can donate used instruments. that's just fine. if you want a list of the toys to conate -- donate and what we are looking for and drop off location, it's on abc2news.com. just get to the website and check it out or look at your screen. there's a list of the drop off locations right there. charlie. >> thanks a lot time is 9:31. we know dasher and dancer and prancer and vixon and santa and the elves and tree and lights but there's a few things about christmas you may not consider or know why. dr. joel wall whereby loyola university is here to highlight the christmas facts and good morning to you. >> good morning. >> how are things going? >> pretty good. >> some of the facts and some of the history and traditions of christmas, there's stories behind the stories aren't there? >> there are a million and sometimes they contradict each other. but there's plenty. >> which is most contradictory? >> well, there's even a controversy about who wrote twas the night before christmas and there's two different claimants. one is clemmen clark moore but there he's also a fellow who's family to this day maintains he is the one who wrote the poem and clem n clark moore stole the credit for it. so even who wrote that we are not sure. >> controversy over christmas. >> yes. >> people can't get along for any reason any time of year. one of the more common questions i know you have been asked is was scrooge a real person? >> you know, it is not so much that scrooge was based on a real person. it's that charles dickens about a decade before in his papers wrote a prototype and the character there was a guy named gabriel grub who was a grave digger. and grumpy old grave digger and he is going to dig a grave christmas eve and sees a kid singing a carol and hits him on the head with the lantern and has a good laugh and when he digs the grave gob lns appear and drag hem down into the underworld and show him another family of people who actually love christmas and warm -- goblins ahear and drag him down into the underworld and show him another family of people who actually love christmas. and he becomes a different person and in fact what would happen is that story was successful within the novel so later on, dickens decided i am going to write a novel about it. goblins gone, ghosts are in and grave digger out and greety businessman in. >> and told the way -- greedy businessman in. >> and told the only way he can what gets someone of your background into this? because it seems like the knowledge base for this there's a fun in -- there's entertainment value in learning this isn't there? >> it's infinitely stimulating and it's about everything. three nothing that is not affected -- there's nothing in our world that's not affected by christmas. no aspect that has not been affected by dreams and aspiration and ecomony and politics. # we have a christmas -- we have a christmas true story in world war i. so it's as interesting as anything there is and it's fun. >> i played soccer for a while. >> absolutely. sang carols together. >> they did. >> and unfortunately when word got out some of the officers had the ring leaders executed. >> they did. >> end of christmas fun. >> any christmas story or true tale or fact in anyway bothered you? >> other than the gabriel grub because that keeps on giving. >> no. gabriel grub i love. there's often a sort of disturbing side to all sorts of things. even something like we complain about commercialism at christmas whisper textly understandable and i am going to do -- christmas you whispering. people are shopping and people are who can goods in philidelphia they are making chocolate lobsters and cockroaches to sell on the christmas season. and folks are complaining about it. so, the sense that it's been corrupted lately, that's not really true. it's sort of been corrupted one way or another for decades and centuries. >> all right. thanks for the time and happy holidays. >> thank. you same to you. >> we will have this on abc2news.com later. and maybe he will let you order the course. >> i could ask a million questions right now. but we asked you a question, our hot topic. ocean city is talking about replacing the boardwalk with concrete. we asked you do you want ocean city to spend the money to repair and replace it with wood or change it to concrete to save money. so don rights in -- writes i understand concrete is less upkeep but it would take away the appeal of the wooden boardwalk and amy says i think concrete. we went to virginia beach and we like theirs much more than maryland. if you want to weigh in, we want to know what you think. fine the story on the wmar facebook fan page and read it and leave a comment and we will share the comments throughout the morning's show. all right. stay with us this morning. if you are looking for a lft minute unique -- last-minute unique gift and rather shop local. we have another great idea for the local shopping series. the heart of canton in the square to a shop called 2910 on the square. stephanie the owner is here and has some great ideas for anybody in your life. and college challenge enough for most, but one guy made it to graduation day after battling cancer not once, but eight times. perhaps now you can hear me. we have a strong wind out of the north. 12 miles per hour and it will pick up during the afternoon. so temps in the 30s feels like the 20s. more on the christmas storm outlook and more of "good morning, maryland" when we come back. and welcome back to good morning maryland at nine. having a birthday? we want to know all about it. send a e-mail with attached photograph of yourself friend or family members morning show at wmar.com and try to get it in in a day or so in advance so we can get the graphics made up. >> if you have anything you want to us share, we would love to see it. if your cat is cute or you saw a gorgeous shot of the moon, send it to us. we will share it with everybody. just send us a e-mail to morning show at wmar.com and provide all the information about the picture you took and who you are and where you are from. >> we want to let you know everything going on about town here. featured events for the day. tonight, homeless persons memorial day of service. that is great thing we do here in baltimore. december 21st at five at baltimore inner harbor amphitheater at pratt and light streets. what it does is honors the people this is the first day of winter as it is the first day of winter it's known as the national homeless persons memorial day of honor. so there's going to be an event tonight once again at five at the inner harbor amphitheater 443-703-1398 or e-mail at the bottom if you want to help out. >> all right. you like the theater? >> i do. >> center stage local program in baltimore and they are having a suit drive suit to succeed. and at center stage on calvert street if you go in and donate a woman's suit, which will go to the program to help women get back on their feet and get a job, they will give you $10 off a theater ticket. give them a call. it's a suit drive all day long and it's coming up throughout the season. so, there's website to go to center stage for more information. it's happening on the 26th. i am look there and it is the 26th the day after christmas. help out. everybody has a old suit they don't need. >> and if you have an event you want to us mention, drop us an e-mail at wmar.com. and you can have emmett-mails us personally or sen to the group website we want to showcase everything going on here in charm city. >> all right. it's 9:41 right now. just ahead this morning, a story that does have it all. >> looking for a piece of baltimore a cute scarf and jewelry and art and cards, you name it 2910 has it. we will take outcanton treasure megan is so excited about. >> i love this store. it's so cute. you are watching the station that works for you "good morning, maryland" at nine. >> thanks for joining us. when you walk into 2910 on the square you open up the door and are groated by dogs and blown away by the products. because they have everything for gift buying. and a lot of it is made by local artists. so stephanie is the owner of 2910 on the square. thanks for coming in. >> thank you. good morning megan. >> good morning. great to have you and you brought all sorts of stuff. >> i did. >> i don't know where to start but let's start here because this is a unique thing you can find in your store which is so baltimore. >> it's the hoe cal -- local artist who does these hand painted wood panels and does them on bricks and she does a lot of places throughout baltimore, canton fells point and federal hill and can cost amadou your house if you are interested -- custom do your house if you are interested and you can make up your street scene. >> you could have canton square. >> do they hang them on the wall. >> they do. and this is the latest piece the domino sugar -- with the sign and everything. i love it. we will move over here because i am a huge fan of mittens. i hate being cold. what's the story on these. >> these are awesome. we have been carrying them for the last 12 holidays handmade in michigan and they are made from old sweaters they boil into wool and lined with fleece and you have to try them on. >> okay. >> i live in these. >> i bet you do. you pointed out to me and i will hold it up to get a shot is something you explained. this would be not only a great gift for somebody because it's pretty but there's a great story behind it. >> there is. that is feel good story. the towels are made by the st. elizabeth school in baltimore. and they have kid with disabilities up to the age of 21 and they make them in the art class. there's a story about the child on the back and each students signs it and the money goes back to the school. and, this is our third season carrying these and we can't keep them in stock. >> they do well. >> they fly out. >> of course that's people in baltimore. you have the hon balls. >> yes we do. >> what's the story behind them a ravens one. >> these are made by local artist debbie howard who has been doing them for lots of season. each is handmade and hand decorated. this is the believe hon ball in baltimore and a ravens one. she did. it says love the ravens, hon. this has been popular. >> i said to stephanie i have to get hon balls and she said we don't have them right now. >> we will get more this week. >> all right. so we shot video of the store. we want to look at it. and describe what would you say to somebody if you were describing this is the kind of store i own because you do have jewelry and everything. >> we do have have a little bit of everything. we feature a lot of local artist as well as art throughout the united states and canada. featuring handmade in america and if you are looking for something for a wedding or to be a -- for a baby gift or jew dayic we have jew dayica but things that are unique you won't find if you go to the mall or one of the big named stores. >> you love owning your own business. >> it's exciting and the customers are great. and it's just wonderful. it is. >> why do you want people to shop local. >> it's important and it's feeding money back into the ecomony. many of the things you see here are baltimore artists. that is photographer here in baltimore who created his own line of greeting cards and they feature their scenes. patterson park and inner harbor. >> that's great. >> and linda makes her crab balls here with the crab ball recipe on the back. so it's keeping money within maryland and supporting local art and you are giving the gift that's very unique. >> all right. tell everybody where you are if you are watching take a look at your screen. this is all the information for 2910 on the square. >> on o'donnell square in the heart of canton at 2910 o'donnell street. >> all right. >> right there. and we are open every day right now through christmas eve until 6 p.m. >> all right. if you go in the store, you will be greeted by the cutest dogs you've seen besides mine. thanks stephanie for coming in. >> thank you. >> charlie. >> time 9:49. megan thanks a lot. 31 degrees outside and we are asking for your two cents this morning. regarding the boardwalk over in ocean city. there's proposal on the table to convert it to concrete or replace the wood. price tag around 10 million dollars. that's at facebook hot topic for today. you want oc to spend money to repair or replace the boardwalk with the wood or make the whole sale change over to concrete and save the cash? here's some responses we have had thus far. this is from susan. she says the boardwalk has such a nice smell and the sound of it when you walk or ride your bike brings back memories and clearly wants to keep it wood. thanks for weighing in on that one susan. also she goes onto say, ocean city is so very special and aluring because of the beautiful boardwalk. please no concrete. leave it as it is. get the two cents in to us. let us know what you think and we will share it with you throughout morning on "good morning, maryland" at nine and wmar facebook fan page so easy to get involved. your voice matters. off to a break and ten minutes before the hour. you are watching "good morning, maryland" at nine. 9:53. my family came in to celebrate eclipsem-as and. >> i son is wearing a shirt with a yeddy on it. kid knows something. 31 in baltimore. 33 in york. we factor in the wind and we are do down into the lower 20s. teens back to the west. the wind are pick up today. we talked about that storm in new england crank up and getting a brakes put on it. city itself but they are getting snow in new england and that's increasing the wind field from the north and we are averaging 10 to 20-mile-per-hour temperature. and more clouds to the west with an upper level system. once again, we take a take a look at the national setup. if you have a wide screen set that's one -- i wanted to go to the main flow and you can see we have this pacific storm just beginning to watch some of the morning computer model package come in. it's take the storm a little bit stronger. we know they will have flooding rains through southern california. and even on to the desert southwest near las vegas. and pushing in heavy mountain snows. how much energy is left over when it crosses the mountains. right now, it looks like it will hold the form. if anything, it may slow down a little bit. that could be good news for some you have. we expect this thing to redevelop off the coast. and there will be fine tuning of this forecast as we get more information and closer to the event tomorrow. we start putting out snowfall expectations but looks like we will crank up a storm on christmas. it may slow down a little bit. so instead of starting on christmas eve, it may start during the day on christmas itself. but that's one of the fine details we have to work on. otherwise that's pretty much the main player for the week. 35 will feel like 20s. tonight we are looking for that official start of winter at 6:38. there's nothing to see. so whether we are cloudy or not doesn't matter. it's just a mark on the calendar and we will look at 23 requestw mostly cloudy skies. tomorrow pushing about 38 degrees. and yes with highs in the 30s with lows down into the 20s. dry until friday and friday night perhaps but definitely on saturday a very good chance of a christmas snowstorm. temperatures will struggle to be near 30 and strong winds whip up and in the 20s after that storm passes i am not going to say it yet. >> wait for it. >> wait for the it. >> finally this morning from colleges, it's a -- col sage accomplishment -- college is an accomplishment. but a copen state student had -- student had more than midterms he had to fight for his life. >> cheryl conner shows us the moment justin anticipated for years. >> reporter: a special round of applause for a man who knows how to jump hurdles to reach his goals. 23-year-old justin may have spent more time in the hospital than the classroom before graduation day. >> going through so much, god blessed me so much and working so hard to finally get here. i really can't even say how excited i am. >> reporter: the excitement also spells relief for justin's parents. >> we knew one day it would happen. but with all the strug les we didn't know when. >> reporter: during the freshman year in the spring of 2005, justin was diagnosed with osteosarcoma a malignant bone tumor that spreads throughout the body and i tax the lungs. cancer has returned eight -- body and sprendz throughout lungs. cancer returned eight -- body and sprendz throughout the lungs. cancer returned eight times. >> the last semester was hard for me. i spent a lot of time in the hospital but my teachers were very supportive and even e-mailed meet work when i couldn't -- e mailed me the work when i couldn't make it to class. >> reporter: he wants to become a physical therapist and he is one step closer. his journey through college took longer and was probably more painful than any -- than anyone next to him. he doesn't expect bigger accolades, just a note that any goal no matter how difficult is worth the fight. cheryl conner abc2 news. >> great story. you may have noticed we have more people on the set. it's the berk clan. >> what are we celebrating? >> eclipsemas. >> i was not kidding this guy knows weather. give me weather report every morning and i never taught him to do it. >> count down to the four letter word is when. >> tomorrow morning. if it is holding we will have more on the storm and why we will have more this evening.